"When was the last time I have seen a president on a billboard? What is going on? Didn't Saddam Hussein have his picture up everywhere? What next, a statue?"

UPDATE: My friend Gerrit writes:

As a German, this produces associations I don't quite like
as 'Our Leader' translates to 'Unser Führer' in German.
Now, I know that those associations are not justified,
but a lot of people around the world who had a certain
kind of 'leader' in their past (or still have one) will
look at this and start to wonder what's going on.

The fact that this billboard was not put up by the
Government but by private citizens or corporations
(The one in Orlando seems to have been done by
'Clear Channel Outdoor') will not really change the
impression they are getting. Even if they are told
this is not Government sponsored.

While the intentions behind this might have been
good, I think the people who paid for this didn't
quite think it through.

Well, granted. I'm sure they realized they were just asking for whatever willful misinterpretations people would have; I don't doubt that the whole purpose of putting that message on a billboard over a freeway where all kinds of people have to look at it is intended primarily as a way to rub salt in the wounds of the ones who lost. Certainly I can understand their reactions; I think the thing's rather unseemly, myself.

But I also suspect that the asymmetrical warfare of propaganda goes both ways; all the letter-writer and Michael Moore have to do is tell people that what they saw on the freeway is no different from what was common in Saddam's Baghdad, and the gullible or thoughtless ones will believe it. An ingenious counterstroke? An unfair cheap-shot? Depends on how you look at it, I guess.